Bill > HB1604

This bill establishes new guidelines for how local jails in Washington state must conduct searches of transgender and intersex individuals, ensuring compliance with federal law, specifically the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). Key provisions include prohibiting searches solely to determine a person's genital status, requiring searches to be conducted in the least intrusive manner possible by trained staff, and offering transgender and intersex individuals specific options for who conducts their strip searches, such as a medical professional, female staff, or someone of their preferred gender. The bill also mandates that jails develop policies to prevent nonmedical staff of the opposite gender from viewing an individual's breasts, buttocks, or genitalia during private activities like showering or changing clothes, with exceptions only for exigent circumstances or routine cell checks, and importantly, states that a lack of trained female staff is not an exigent circumstance justifying a cross-gender search. Furthermore, it clarifies that searches should not be based solely on the facility's gender designation but must consider the individual's gender identity and preferences, and that searches by someone of a different gender are only permissible in emergencies threatening facility security.